


B.S.G.

by kaige68



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Case Fic, Kidnapping, M/M, Murder, Pre-Slash, Torture, Triggers, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 07:12:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/pseuds/kaige68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a deranged serial killer on the loose, and now he's got one of the Five-O's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Rating:** Adult - for language and situation  
>  **Disclaimer :** As we all know, I don’t own any of this. I make no assumptions, and no suppositions. This is non-profit fiction based on other fiction.  
>  **Beta:** Un-beta'd, concrit is welcomed.  
>  **Warnings:** Here there be triggers. The fic contains mention and description of kidnapping, torture, and murder.  
>  **Notes:**  
>  This fic is in 7 parts, but it is finished. It's been done for months but I haven't had it beta read yet, I wanted to get it posted before the end of the year ~~(because apparently my annual word count is important to me)~~.
> 
> It needs to be disclosed that I am a bookkeeper when I’m not writing slash. If you need help with an Excel spread sheet, I’m your girl. If you’re looking for procedural information about police investigations, well, the best I can do is make stuff up. Which is what I’ve done. So let’s preface this entire fic with saying that I am guessing at all of the following: Police procedure, psychiatric evals of serial killers, psychiatric evals of torture/abuse victims, traffic patterns in Honolulu, Oahu neighborhoods and zoning, costume construction, airspeed velocity of an un-laden African swallow, injuries and medical explanations of injuries, how to torture and/or murder, how to calculate time of death, autopsies, testing times, terminology, and dry-cleaning. If it’s wrong, I’m sorry. If you point it out, I will happily do better next time and hope that you forgive the transgressions contained here.
> 
> Ever since theBurgundyRose commented on [Rupert](http://archiveofourown.org/works/455452%22) I have had this in my mind, of course [](http://haldoor.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://haldoor.livejournal.com/)**haldoor** prodded me as we hashed it out a bit. Thank you both!

_Well didn’t that just explain it?_ Steve thought as he felt his knees go out from under him. There had been a sudden pain in his neck, and when he had the chance to think about it he would realize that it had been precipitated by the sound of glass breaking. He’d reached up and pulled a tranquilizing dart from his neck. Just as everything was going black, the case the team had been working for weeks began to come together.

~~~~

Danny sighed as he got out of the Camaro. Steve walked around the front, putting on gloves, shaking his head at his partner’s reaction. “D, come on, you knew what it was when we got the call.”

“Just once, I’d like it if Duke had been wrong.” Danny put on his own gloves as he walked up the pathway to the single family home that was abuzz with police activity.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky this time and he’ll have left something.”

Danny appreciated how hopeful Steve sounded, but he knew that whoever they were dealing with hadn’t left any evidence. Exactly like he hadn’t left any at the other 4 scenes. He shook his head as they entered the house, watched the crime scene tech dust the empty window for prints, knowing full well it would be a fruitless pursuit.

“Same guy, boss.” Kono announced as they entered the living room. There was a 20-something guy in the kitchen, clearly distraught, talking to a uniform. Steve turned Danny’s attention with a nudge to the room with the missing window; they’d get to the guy in a few minutes. “Single pane of glass missing. No obvious debris, but they will go over it better. According the boyfriend who lives here, a table and lamp were knocked over, and a rocking chair is out of place, which you can see in the carpet tracks.”

“And the vic?”

Chin walked in the house just then and answered Steve’s question. “Her name is A___ L_____. 37, Human Resource manager at E____ Co. in Halawa. No children, never married. Couple of traffic violations that she paid promptly a few years ago, but nothing else on record. She’s originally from Delaware, E____ Co. transferred her here 8 years ago. Security there shows her badge clocking out at 5:17.” He finished his list and shook his head. “Nothing connecting her with the others.”

“Boyfriend seems a little young for her.”

Kono smiled slightly at Danny’s comment. “Makes me like her all the more.”

Steve huffed a quiet laugh and nudged Danny again. “We’ve got 5 days to find her, let’s go talk to the boyfriend. Kono, do what you have to, hover at the lab, just get us results A-sap. Chin dig into her financials, family history, everything. We need to link her to the others. Somehow we need to find a commonality.”

~~~~

“What’s your take on the boyfriend?” Steve took a corner a little too fast as they headed to Halawa.

“He’s sincere. He’s dependant on her. She took him from pool boy to college grad. I’d be surprised if her finances were any different than he said. He paints a picture of her being smart enough not to list him as a beneficiary anywhere. If she found another boy toy and he found out about it,” Danny shrugged within the confines of his seatbelt. “He should be up for an Oscar. He’s got nothing to do with this.”

Steve sighed, Danny took that as agreement. He mentally ran through the bullet points of what the boyfriend had told them.

> _A___ leaves work on Mondays between 5 and 530. The ride takes about 45 minutes._  
>  Boyfriend picks up takeout from the same Thai place every Monday, home about 6:30.  
>  Restaurant was busy; he checked the clock in the car as he pulled up, 10 minutes late.  
>  Door was closed but unlocked – unusual.  
>  Her car was in the driveway; purse, keys and cell were on a side table in the entry.  
>  No answer when he called out, put the food down and noticed the chair out of place, table and lamp on the floor. Window pane missing.  
>  Boyfriend checked the house for her, found nothing, panicked.  
>  911 call came in at 6:52.  
>  If the boyfriend’s story checked out A___ was taken somewhere between 6:00 and 6:40. 

Danny was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of a text on Steve’s phone. He took the phone and checked the message while Steve kept driving. “Duke.” He answered the unasked question of who the text was from. “Boyfriend’s alibi checks out. Hostess confirmed he’s a regular. He was there from 5:30 to 6:15.”

The Camaro turned into E____ Co., Steve flashed a badge, they had been expected, and were let in. They spent the next hour going through the contents of A___’s desk and computer with her assistant and VP. Nothing stood out, nothing of note, nothing similar to the other victims. _Damn!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a deranged serial killer on the loose, and now he's got one of the Five-O's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer :** As we all know, I don’t own any of this. I make no assumptions, and no suppositions. This is non-profit fiction based on other fiction.  
>  **Beta:** Un-beta'd, concrit is welcomed.  
>  **Warnings:** Here there be triggers. The fic contains mention and description of kidnapping, torture, and murder.  
>  **Notes:**  
>  Again, I'm completely out of my element and am blissful in my ignorance of what reality would be.
> 
> Ever since theBurgundyRose commented on [Rupert](http://archiveofourown.org/works/455452) I have had this in my mind, of course Haldoor prodded me as we hashed it out a bit. Thank you both!

Steve came to slowly. He was stretched vertically. Hands shackled to chains that ran up toward the ceiling. Ankles shackled together. Wherever he was, there was no light. Not even something dim that he could adjust to. Just pitch black and tethered.

He passed in and out of consciousness over what he assumed was the next few hours as the sedative slowly wore off. He called out frequently, getting neither an answer nor any attention. He lifted his legs, felt his way with his toes finding the chain attached to a welded loop and plate that seemed to be bolted to a cement ceiling. Steve tried to stretch out further when he let his legs down, only able to touch the balls of his feet to what felt like a cement floor as well. 

He was naked and every part of him hurt.

Sometimes when he woke he was prostrate on the floor feet still clamped together and bound by chain, to what he presumed was a wall, with very little give. Arms shackled separately, held out perpendicular from his torso, also chained with little give.

Eventually he heard a muffled noise, possibly a key in a lock. Then a definite door opening and closing. There was a _snick_ and a very small amount of light came into the cement cell, through what looked like a gap under another door. He heard and another key in a lock, then one more, and finally the small light expanded to fill the doorway 8 feet in front of him. 

More of the case evidence fell into place.

~~~~

3 days! Victim #5 had been missing for 3 days. Danny was ready to pull his hair out.

It was after 9pm and Danny stood at the SmartTable looking over all the time lines, scene photos, victims’ life stories, and the evidentiary reports. He tried to find something, anything, that made sense and could lead to a break in the case. 

Kono and Chin had left early, on time really. Kono had come in early, very early, trying to contact a couple of fabric manufacturers on the mainland east coast. Hoping to get some information out of them about the trace evidence they’d found. Chin hadn’t gone home the night before, trying to go through all the traffic camera footage in the areas of the kidnappings to try and find cars in one event that might match another.

Steve was in the building somewhere, getting reamed by the Governor, Mayor, City Council, and everyone else in an elected position that was certain that Five-O should have gotten the murderer already.

Danny pulled out paper and a pencil and started writing down notes. Everything on the monitors was getting to be too much at once.

> _Victim #1: 50, male, Caucasian, b. Hawaii, divorced, 2 children (18  & 20) & ex-wife in Hilo. One domestic disturbance call in Hilo that precipitated divorce, no assault & no charges filed. No current romantic attachments, ex-girlfriend parted amicably. Lit Proff @ B____, on sabbatical. Finances in order. Lived alone in downtown Honolulu condo, no pets. Gym membership, video store membership, preferred dry-cleaner, regular housekeeper 1/wk. Abduct Scene: Cleaned by housekeeper before body found. Said she found kitchen window missing and she taped a garbage bag in place. She presumed that vic had broken it, cleaned it and had not replaced it yet, mentioned that there was rainwater on the counter. Said kitch table had been moved about a foot, and that the last vacuum bag had been taken. HPD found nothing to conflict with housekeeper’s report, found no trace evidence. Children spoke to vic 1/wk, not unusual to skip call on occasion; last contact was 13 days before body found. Time line for abduction is anywhere between Sunday the ___th at 7pm and Thursday noon (between call to children and housekeeper coming in) Dump site: Found Sand Island, unclothed, trash bag (prob from vic’s home) found w/ clothes, watch, wallet, shoes, cell phone. Evidence of beating/torture. Contused puncture wound at clavicle. Ligature marks on wrists and ankles, most likely metal cuffs/shackles. Pink fibers found under toenails. Body found after second vic’s body found._

Danny rubbed at the back of his neck. He pulled a chair up and started on the next one.

> _Victim #2: 21, male, Hawaiian, b. Hawaii, single, no children. One moving violation, disputed. Typical credit card debt and car loan. Lives w/ male roommate apartment near downtown. Sporadic girlfriend, no pets. Bartender/bouncer M____ nightclub. Y membership, video mail membership, no other affiliations. Reported missing on a Wed AM, report filed but only cursory follow through until body found.  Abduct Scene: Cleaned before body found. Roommate said window pane missing from window next to front door (replaced before body found), floor lamp had been broken and thrown away. Roommate received calls that vic had missed two shifts, vic had not returned texts re: window. Roommate called vic’s mother, mother reported vic missing. Time line for abduction Monday ____th (1 week following vic 1) 7:30 am and 6 pm while roommate was at work and gym. Dump site: Found Sand Island, unclothed, trash bag containing clothes, wallet, shoes, cell phone. Evidence of beating/torture. Contused puncture wound back left shoulder. Wide ligature marks on wrists and ankles. Pink fibers in mouth and under toenails. Body found Saturday after abduction by runner, Vic #1’s body was found covered in debris 12 yards away. Vic #2 deceased for @ 15 hours, Vic #1 deceased 6-9 days._

> _Victim #3: 29, female, Latin, b. Alabama, married 3 children (3, 5,  & 6). No criminal/civil findings. Mortgage upside down. Single family home in Manoa, 1 cat. Stay@home mom. Women-only gym membership (lapsed 2 mo prev), video mail membership, blogger. Reported missing Monday following db finds 1 and 2. Abduct Scene: Family had been through house before HPD could process. Window pane missing in rear French door. Husband was called to school when vic did not pick up children, no answer on vic’s cell phone. Husband called 911 when found mess on floor and missing glass. Vic’s car, phone, and purse were at the home. Time line for abduction between 12:42 PM (Husband had spoken to vic on phone) and 4:30pm, Monday, 1 week after Vic #2 abducted. Five-O called to scene. Dump Site: Found Mililani near freeway, unclothed, trash bag containing clothes. Evidence of beating/torture. Contused puncture wound right hip. Wide ligature marks on wrists and ankles. Pink fibers in hair. Body found Saturday after abduction by cemetery worker, deceased about hours. Five-O called to scene._

“Anything?”

“No.” Danny sat back in the chair. “If I put it all on paper maybe something will click. Did you get the report from the dog on #4?”

Steve walked to his office and called over his shoulder. “Let me make another call.”

> _Victim #4: 33, male, Samoan, b. Hawaii, domestic partner no children. No criminal/civil findings. Single family home in Kaneohe, 2 dogs. Realtor. Running club, internet video membership, volunteer @ GLTB support line. Reported missing Monday after Vic #3 abducted.  Abduct Scene: 1 dog found loose in street by neighbor, trying to return dog neighbor got no response from house could see other dog unconscious on floor through window. Tried to call vic – no answer, called partner, called 911. Window pane missing in bedroom, bedding pulled from bed. Dog deceased. Time line for abduction between 7:45 am and 10:30 am. Five-O called to scene. Dump Site: Found Hauula near church parking lot, unclothed, trash bag from vic’s home containing clothes, shoes, wallet, watch. Evidence of beating/torture. Contused puncture wound in neck. Wide ligature marks on wrists and ankles. Abrasions across the tops of toes. Body found Sunday after abduction by church worker. Deceased 30 to 40 hours. Five-O called to scene._

> _Victim #5: 37, female, Caucasian, b. Delaware, single (live-in boyfriend) no children. 3 speeding tickets in last 10 years. Single family home in Kaimuki, no pets. HR Mgr. No memberships, informal monthly book club. Reported missing Monday after Vic #4 abducted.  Abduct Scene: Boyfriend found vic’s car, cell phone and purse at scene, door unlocked, living room window missing a pane, side table and lamp knocked over, rocking chair out of place. Called 911. Time line for abduction between 6:00 PM and 6:40 PM. Five-O called to scene_

Danny had almost written _Dump Scene_. He let his head drop to the table while he listened to Steve lay into the veterinary lab. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a deranged serial killer on the loose, and now he's got one of the Five-O's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer :** As we all know, I don’t own any of this. I make no assumptions, and no suppositions. This is non-profit fiction based on other fiction.  
>  **Beta:** Un-beta'd, concrit is welcomed.  
>  **Warnings:** Here there be triggers. The fic contains mention and description of kidnapping, torture, and murder.  
>  **Notes:**   
>  Again, I'm completely out of my element and am blissful in my ignorance of what reality would be.
> 
> Ever since theBurgundyRose commented on [Rupert](http://archiveofourown.org/works/455452) I have had this in my mind, of course Haldoor prodded me as we hashed it out a bit. Thank you both!

Consciousness flooded Steve with the bucket of ice cold water that doused him. He struggled against the bindings, he knew better but it was part of waking up. He had no idea how long he’d been in the gray room. He was beaten into unconsciousness frequently. There’d been a barbed whip, a cattle prod, and a bat. He tried to think of it analytically, it didn’t always work.

“Look at you, pretty boy. Tenderized. Waiting to see what I’ll do next. So pretty.” And then the laugh that Steve could hear even when the man wasn’t there.

“My team will find you. You are going down you twisted bastard. You-“ Pain lashed across his ribs.

“The others didn’t have that confidence.” Pain across Steve’s thighs. “Weren’t anywhere near as sure as you are that someone would find them. Or find me.”

“They w-“ Steve screamed again.

“But then the others weren’t picked like you were. Tell me, pretty boy, what would you give them, what would you tell your little boyfriend if you could give him a tiny little clue?”

“You’ll shoot your eye out.” The man in the bunny suit laughed as he picked up the cattle prod.

~~~~

“Dog’s throat was crushed.” Danny was flicking through crime scene photos when Steve came out of his office.

He nodded at the report Steve relayed. Cockers were not the most durable dogs when someone was standing on their necks. Danny had figured at the scene that they would find exactly that. “I’ve got nothing here.” He flicked a few more pictures across the screens.

Steve took the notes Danny had written out and rand a finger them as he read through. “The vics have to be random. There’s no one thing that all of them have in common.”

“Except being abducted on Mondays in broad daylight from their own homes and killed on Fridays by blunt force trauma to the head.”

“We’ve still got two more days, it’s only Wednesday.” Danny nodded at the statement, not wanting to correct him that they probably had a day and a half at best.

After a few silent minutes still looking at photos Danny asked. “So what’s different about them? Is he collecting? Getting a set?”

“I don’t understand the pink fibers. Why toes and hair but not-“ Steve sat up. “D? What’s this on 4 with the abrasions on his toes.”

If they were looking for different then it was a good place to start. “Max said they were minor scrapes, a little blood on the big toes, said it looked like when you skinned yourself on cement. WAIT! Waitwaitwait.!” Danny started flicking through the electronic files in front of him. “How tall was 4?”

Steve found the page first. “6’3”, what are you thinking?”

“Who’s next? 2, 1, and then the women?” Steve nodded. “Vic 2 is what? 6’, maybe?”

“6’ and 3/4 inches.”

“So they’re all manacled. You do that to a person, it’s not just about keeping their hands together, it’s about keeping them in place.” Danny still had visions of Steve inside that truck in North Korea, but that was for another day. “What if they’re suspended? And only #4 can touch the floor, a bit.” Steve nodded. “He comes at them, they try to defend themselves and use what they can. The mom head butts him, the others kick and push, #2 takes a bite out of him.”

“And what, our guy is wearing a pink fluffy shirt?”

Danny scrolled to Kono’s notes on the labs reports on the fibers. “Pink fibers are a match in all instances found. Traces back to a fabric that was mass distributed until about 10 years ago. Trace on the fibers shows dry cleaning fluid.”

“So we hit every dry cleaner on the island looking for pink clothes?”

“Someone who drops off their pink clothes for cleaning after every body dump, and picks it up on Monday.”

“We can’t canvas until morning. But I like the suspension theory. Explains the two dislocated shoulders. Easy to do if someone takes a beating like that.” Steve continued to comb through the notes Danny had written. “He’s cleaning at each scene. But only #1 reported a missing vacuum cleaner bag. Is he bringing his own vacuum?”

Danny laughed. “No, Babe, it’s the same as the trash bag. No one pays that close attention. The maid knew it was missing because she had left the last one in the house the previous week. She assumed her employer had used it to clean the glass himself. Nobody knows how many vacuum bags they have left until they’re out. Nobody but professional housekeepers, and type-A Navy SEALS.” Steve glared. Danny laughed again. “How many?”

“Four. Asshole.” Steve scowled. “There’s a bagless one I’ve been-“

“Back to work, Alice. We’ll go vacuum shopping after we get this guy.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Which one of you does the fucking and which one gets fucked?” Steve had long since stopped responding to what the guy in the bunny suit said to him. The man had moments of being falsely nice, interspersed into verbal abuse and taunting. The physical abuse happened no matter what the man said. “I bet Blondie bends you over and fucks you wherever he wants, takes all your control and you love it! I bet you love this too!” Steve sucked in breath at the pain that slammed into him. He would have believed that there was no place on him that didn’t hurt, and yet Bunny Suit kept finding new places to hit him.

He swayed with the beatings (he was always hanging from the ceiling for the beatings), unable to gain any purchase with his feet. His whole body was swollen and the edema from hanging only encouraged the agony. Steve wondered about the other five victims, when his mind came to between the hammerings. Wondered how much they may have cried, how much they begged, how worried they were that they were about to die, how much they wanted it instead of the continued pain.

Steve was the same height as one of the vics (his mind couldn’t recall which one) and he could only scrape the floor. Three of them never would have been able to touch. Just one more thing to add to the hopelessness. They hadn’t known that they had an expiration date, and while Steve had no idea how long he’d been there or what day it was, he did know he wouldn’t be in the chains come Saturday. They may have thought it would never end.

Steve also knew that his team wouldn’t stop until they had the guy, dead to rights or just dead. He would rather not need to be avenged, but Bunny Suit would not get away from his Five-0.

He tried to keep himself busy, calisthenics, or as close as he could get. Pull ups, leg lifts, flipping his body as upside down as he could manage when he was hanging. It helped the pain some. At first he’d started counting, and somewhere, in the midst of the nightmare, the counting had changed from _four, five, six_ to _Danny, Danny, Danny_

~~~~

They had split up the island and were canvassing dry-cleaners looking for someone who’d had a pink fuzzy something _Martinized_. By the close of normal business hours it felt like they had barely made a dent.

If Danny ever ran the world there would be a centralized dry-cleaning database. Or at the very least a uniform code of terms to use to describe items. Try walking into a laundry facility and ask if they’d cleaned anything that Five-0 only had a two word set of descriptors for. 

Then there was the fact that not only were they dealing with retail locations, but hotels and resorts all over the island offered cleaning services. They’d also been asked by too many people if it was a costume, and that brought up the idea that it could be a rental costume and possibly an employee or possibly…

“How is this possible that our haystack keeps getting bigger? I mean who is this guy and why the F_” Danny slammed the side of his fist against the passenger door as Steve drove. It didn’t help the feeling of uselessness. 

“We’ll find him, D. We’ll find him.” 

They pulled in another lot, in front of another store, and quietly got out. Naturally there was a line. Danny walked straight to the front. “Excuse me, I need to-“

“Excuse _ME!_ ” The harpy second in line poked at Danny’s shoulder, actually poked him with her finger nail. “I’ve got a rehearsal dinner tonight and-“ Steve stepped back.

Danny slammed his badge on the counter, not looking at the French manicured woman in order to contain himself. “And I’ve got a missing person who will be murdered in the next 24 hours if I don’t find her! I go to the front of the line!”

Steve stifled a smirk as the on-the-ball counter clerk asked Danny how she could help.

“In the past 4 or five weeks have you taken in something pink and fuzzy? It would possibly have blood on it.” Danny tried to speak calmly.

The clerk raised one finger and called over her shoulder. “B___?”

 _”Yeah?”_ The reply came from behind a row of plastic sheathed clothes.

“That guy with the costume who lit into you couple of weeks ago, what color was it?” Steve and Danny both perked up.

 _”Pink,”_ Shirts parted and a much more humid employee stepped into view. “Bunny costume. Why?”

The counter clerk pointed at Danny. “They’d like to talk to you. I’ll go get Mrs. M____’s dress.”

“Was there any blood on it?” Steve was now at Danny’s side again.

“Yeah. There was one tiny spot, nothing a guy running for his life would notice you know? Low on one of the legs. He brought it in with a few of them, and one of them I couldn’t get out. Blood and vintage shag don’t mix well.”

It felt like a break. Something finally felt like a break and Danny felt a bit magnanimous. He turned to the poker and politely said. “Enjoy the wedding.”

“Thank you.” She paled, clearly hoping she’d be able to leave unnoticed. “Enjoy your… Um, Thank you.” She threw a couple of bills at the counter and dashed out.

“Could you describe him?” Steve asked as he pulled out his phone. “Is there anything else you remember about him or the costume?”

“Haole, taller than you, buzz cut, brown hair. Dude dropped it off on a Friday afternoon, all calm and stuff. Said he wanted to pick it up Monday, told him it was extra and he was cool with it. Monday was another story. He went over it with eagle eyes and exploded when he found the stain. Called me names, called my mother names. Shoved me.”

“Do you have a record of how he paid?” Steve tapped out a text while he asked.

“He didn’t. Ripped the thing out of my hands, said he wasn’t paying, stormed out.” The kid reached for a clipboard under the counter and pointed to a line on the top page. “We got his plate, and the name he gave us was Smith.” The line was labeled _Bunny suit guy_ ; the date on the line was the day following the discovery of the first two bodies.

Steve switched apps on his phone and made a call. Pointing at Danny he said, “Tell Chin and Kono we’re looking for a tall guy with a pink bunny suit.” He turned and spoke into the phone. “This is McGarrett with Five-0, I need a plate run.”


	5. Chapter 5

Steve wondered if the time between the beatings was getting worse than the beatings themselves. Bunny Suit Guy had actually picked Steve up and set him on the floor with no effort all, mid beating. He prodded and banged with the bat, but somewhere in Steve’s addled mind he was eminently glad to be on the floor again.

He was left on the floor for a couple of hours after the abuse. Or Steve guessed it was only a couple of hours. And then the guy came back, the whip came out, and Steve was suspended again before he passed out with the pain.

It went on like that for … sessions, and Steve couldn’t even count those. However, it seemed like Bunny Suit Guy was trying to make him last. Trying to stretch out the joy of torture.

And it wasn’t even really torture. Steve had been tortured before. Those people were looking for information, or leverage. The guy in the pink fuzzy suit, he was just looking for kicks. He just wanted to know what would get a reaction, grunts, groans, blood, or tears. 

Then it changed. “Today’s the day, Commander! I’m going to let you go!” _It must be Friday._ “And do you know what I’ve been thinking?” The cattle prod stroked up one of Steve’s thighs, pushing slightly into the darkest bruise there. “I’m thinking I’ll pick up Detective Blondie next.”

“NO!” The word tore out of Steve. His swollen and numb body jerked, tried to lash out at the man encased in pink fuzz. He couldn’t let the crazy asshole get his hands on Danny. Couldn’t let him do what he’d done to Steve.

Electricity coursed through his body.

~~~~

It was 23:52 on Friday. She was dead. Where ever she was, Danny was certain she was dead.

The car had been reported stolen over a week before it was seen at the cleaners, when it was found a week later it had been stripped. Danny very much doubted that their killer was also taking cars apart for parts.

He couldn’t think of her as A____, it felt so close when they’d failed her, and Victim #5 was too impersonal when he’d spent the week doing nothing but looking for her. She had just become _Her_. Much like the man they’d hustled for the week before had been _Him_.

Danny stretched his back, hands against the table showing all of Her information and abduct scene photos. He had no doubt they’d be adding to the cluster of pictures by Monday. But come Monday, there’d be a new file... “Son of a mmmm.”

Steve was standing a few feet away, arms crossed, staring at Her picture on a wall screen. Kono was looking out a window at who knew what. When Chin walked in they all snapped around.

“HPD is increasing patrols, and they’ll put up couple of check point road blocks until noon.” Because they all knew that the body dump would happen sometime in the next several hours. “It won’t do us a lot of good.” Chin sounded as discouraged as Danny felt.

“We’ll catch him Cuz. HPD knows what they’re doing.”

“This guy adapts, Kono. He’ll go someplace new, or he’ll go back to someplace he’s been. The dumps are not part of it for him, he’s just getting rid of tra-… them. “ Danny’s tone came down on the last word.

“Our best hope,” Steve told the room who already knew the facts. “Is that he gets nervous, turns to run, and is spotted.”

They’d found another dry cleaner who recognized the ‘tall white guy in with a pink bunny suit’. He’d been there twice, before Vic 1 and after Vic 4. With HPD’s help, composite pictures had been given to every place on the island that did garment cleaning. They had encouraged the cleaners to take the garment in, get a vehicle description, and let the guy go. Danny didn’t know what good it would do. If the guy followed the scenario the other two cleaners had described the costume should already have been dropped off.

Five-0 waited.

~~~~

> _Victim #5: Dump Site: Found in the trunk of a car in supermarket a block from a check point. Unclothed, next to trash bag containing clothes. Evidence of beating/torture. Contused puncture wound right shoulder. Wide ligature marks on wrists and ankles. Pink fibers under toe nails. Body found Saturday after abduction by HPD checking vehicles in parking lot after close. Vehicle had been reported stolen 4 days prior. Five-O called to scene._


	6. Chapter 6

“Come OOOONNNN! Pick up the phone McGarrett!” Danny swore as he drove to Steve’s house Monday morning. HPD had already called Five-0 with a second missing person in an hour. Kono had tried to Call Steve with the first one, got voicemail, and left a message. She’d just called Danny saying that she and Chin were on site but it was not the same M.O. probably an issue of abandonment rather than abduction.

It was almost nine; Danny had to get to the second site, and now all calls to Steve went directly to voicemail. _What the hell?_ If Steve were running or swimming or bench pressing the planet while Danny was calling then the man was going to get an earful.

He pulled the Camaro up behind the truck, blocking it in, and walked up to the door yelling “Hey! Buddy! We need to go!” H stopped short at the front door. A pane of glass was missing, too high up to help someone break in.

~~~~

He tried to make sure, to be cautious. Rachel and Stan had taken Grace off the island for a few days. Not that Danny suspected that Bunny Suit would come after his family, but the guy chose randomly, there was no way to know. The cousins had made a number of phone calls, making sure that their families spent Monday in a group of people, never did anything alone.

It just never occurred to them that Bunny Suit would go after one of them. “Okay, let’s just run this all again.” The three of them stood in Steve’s living room, scene investigators buzzing all over the house. “The alarm clock was set for 5:45. There was a towel hung to dry outback, still wet, so we know he went swimming. 6:45. Wet towel in the bathroom, got dressed. 7:00. Bowl, spoon, glass, coffee cup in the dish drain, there’s water on the drain board so 7:30 at the latest.” Danny sighed. “Your phone times your call to him at 8:04. We’ve got a half hour that he could have grabbed him and almost an hour that he could have cleaned up.”

“Bunny Suit is never in a house for that long.” Chin said abruptly before answering his phone.

Each of them was short tempered. Not surprising. Even HPD was working fast and walking on eggshells. The only intel they had been able to gather from the last dump site was that the victims had most likely been held and killed west of the check point.

“The security company said that Steve used his own code to disarm the system at 6:59. What does that do to your time line?”

“Nothing, he eats breakfast out back.” Kono shot Danny an arched eyebrow at the fact that he had such knowledge of Steve’s morning routine, but Danny figured anyone forced to sleep on a SEAL’s couch would have noticed the rigid schedule. “Duke?” He called out as the man walked by. “Any word from the neighbors?” There was a negative head shake and Danny let it go at that.

“How does anyone get the drop on Steve?” She stared at the small catch-all table near the door that they were presuming went down with Steve.

And the thing was that Steve was good. It was hard to surprise him. He was trained to look for, and expect the unexpected. Danny suddenly felt a heavy pressure around his chest that perhaps they had done this to him. You never knew when Yakuza, disgruntled collars, or former SEAL buddies turned mercenaries where going to show up and try to kill you. But Steve had always seemed prepared for those kinds of events. Always seemed ready for everything. When they had first met… Well Danny was sure in hind sight that Steve would not have been kidnapped by a man dressed like a holiday animal. Danny was afraid that they had, he had, made Steve soft.

“Max was thinking the puncture wound was a quickly dissipating tranquilizer.” Chin turned toward the front door. “A tranq dart would make sense. If the gun barrel was close enough to the glass that it wouldn’t do much to trajectory or velocity when fired…” He frowned at the door. “That could take down anyone in their own home.”

~~~~

Wednesday afternoon they had been over everything a million times. Teams of HPD detectives had been over everything a million times, and so had every government agency that they had the ability to call in favors with. Academy cadets were going picture by picture through every licensed driver on Oahu looking for matches to the sketch they had gotten.

“Detective Williams?” Danny looked up when the Governor addressed him as the man walked up to the SmartTable. “Have you slept at all?” 

“No sir.” Danny freely admitted, knowing full well that he looked tired and angry. “Kono forcibly sent me home yesterday. Sleep just didn’t take.” They’d each tried naps at HQ as well, with much the same result.

Denning simply nodded. The man had been outraged when the fourth and fifth victims had been found. Ripped into Steve fiercely about the task force’s lack of success on the situation. He’d been surprisingly supportive and encouraging with victim #6, with Steve. As though he could finally see that they actually had _nothing_ to go on.

“Did you come to offer another pair of fresh eyes?” Danny asked when the silence dragged on for over a minute while he watched Denning scan all the screens.

“If I thought I could be more of a help than hindrance, I would have offered myself up ages ago.” Gesturing vaguely he asked. “He chooses them all randomly?” 

“Except McGarrett, yes. It looks like…” Danny sighed. “We’re guessing, that once he kills on Friday, he cleans up his kill scene, like taking the costume to be cleaned and dumping the body. Then he probably picks the next victim as early as possible on Saturday, stalks them on Sunday, and grabs them on Monday.” 

“So he only works mid week, or he doesn’t work at all.”

“Looks like.” Not that adding unemployed to the list for their perp did anything for them. The Governor raised a brow waiting for Danny to continue. “We think he was probably near the supermarket parking lot on Saturday when we were going over the scene. He would have spotted Steve then.”

“He did make a spectacle of himself.”

Danny huffed a small laugh. Steve had made a gigantic scene. “We’ve combed through all the surveillance footage in the area at the time, no sign of the guy, there were also no cars reported stolen from the area on Saturday.”

“So he walked home?”

“Walked, took a bus, called a friend.” Danny put his hands in his pockets, and the two men stared at the screens for several minutes in silence. 

Denning finally turned, speaking to Danny before he left. “Get some sleep detective. Take something if you have to. And another shower wouldn’t hurt.” Danny smiled slightly. “Hawai’i and your partner need you alert.”

~~~~

At 9:30 on Friday morning Danny felt useless and near tears. He’d actually cried the previous evening after talking to Grace. He had hours to get to Steve, minutes. There had been no breaks, no information, no tips. They had failed. He had failed. He had failed Steve.

“Danno!” Chin called out encouragingly. Loudly. 

Danny jumped up from his desk and moved quickly out of his office.

“Steve’s cell provider just called. Steve just got a voicemail from someone at I____ Cleaners. They are forwarding it to me.”

They all started moving, out the door, toward the cars. “That’s the place where the kid told us it was a bunny suit.” Chin flashed Danny the store’s phone number and Danny started dialing while Chin waited for the voicemail. “This is Detective Williams; did someone just call McGarrett from Five-0?” The mantra going through Danny’s head as he made his way to the Camaro was _Don’t let the bunny be there for cleaning!_

_“Yeah, I did. I left a message.”_

“Do you want to tell me what you told his voicemail?” They stopped, the three of them standing between the car and the SUV, listening on speaker phone. 

_”We’ve got that picture up, the one of the guy that stiffed us. You know?”_

“Yes, I know.”

_“One of the customer’s recognized him, says he’s a neighbor, little out there you know?”_

“Where does your customer live? Have him meet us there.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to take this paragraph to thank everyone in this fandom. I hadn't written anything outside of an RPG for years, and finally, with not a little prodding from Haldoor, I wrote something small and posted it, then I found myself embraced by some of the most wonderful and encouraging people. And so I kept writing. I've never watched a word count before, but with kudos and pompoms and smiley faces, I've got fifty thousand words posted this calendar year. That's HUGE! So that's a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you. Thank you for reading and encouraging, I say it a lot, but it does mean the world to me.
> 
> Now on to the good bits!

His body quaked, from the electricity, from the anger, and from the fear that he wouldn’t be able to stop this guy. That he’d go after Danny next. There were punches and shocks while Steve jerked, trying to fight back for the first time in a day or so. 

“NO!” Steve screamed again, Bunny Suit laughed.

~~~~

The neighbor said he’d been crazy. One day nice and pleasant and the epitome of a good neighbor. The next day snarling and yelling about kids on his lawn, leaves in his yard. He was paranoid too. He’d built a bunker in his back yard. Huge slabs of concrete and a lot of digging equipment to set it up a few months ago.

Chin put a hand on Danny’s arm. Holding him in place solidly. “Wait. If he’s still in the costume then Steve is still alive.” They both knew that there was no proof what Chin said was true, but it felt better to both of them. _All three of them._ Danny amended as he watched Kono nod. 

They were watching their suspect, G___ P____, walk around his single story home, fully decked out in his costume. He had vacuumed himself, randomly throwing back his head and laughing. He looked like he was talking to himself as well, but with the upright going they couldn’t pick up what he was saying.

Finally, _finally,_ Bunny Suit turned off the vacuum, wound up the cord meticulously, and walked out his back door. Clad in vests and armed to the teeth, Five-0 moved onto the property, then slowly toward the back yard. They watched him open a bulkhead door, then step in, closing it behind him. Danny motioned his team and HPD to move further toward the clear berm in the yard.

“He’ll hear us as soon as we open the bulkhead. “ Chin nodded at Danny’s softly spoken words, and then moved to the base of the door. Kono stood at the top of the entrance. Danny would rather have taken point, but he wasn’t going to fight the only two people who’d kept him going over the past four days. He and a SWAT labeled officer pulled the bulkhead doors open as silently and quickly as they could.

“We’ve got another door.” Chin all but whispered and made his way down the stairs. Danny followed, motioning to Kono to stay put. Officers had taken Danny and Chin’s spots at the outer entrance, it was a narrow space, they weren’t going to crowd in and catch Five-0 in cross fire.

Testing the knob, Chin nodded. Danny squashed himself against the cinderblock so that he could take point as Chin opened the door toward them. He sighed quietly when he saw yet another closed door. He and Chin both moved forward again. They were in a small hall, just the two doors and a few shelves on both of the adjacent walls. There was a phone, watch, and wallet on one shelf, Steve’s. High powered dart gun on another. What he assumed were Steve’s clothes were folded neatly. Baseball bat, whip, used vacuum bag, and a trash bag littered the other shelves. 

Danny tested the next knob. It turned, but the door opened away from them and would not move, secured from the other side. He signaled for a door ram, and a SWAT officer was next to him with one immediately.

On Chin’s count the door was slammed open, Danny and Chin poured into a dank room yelling _Freeze!_ and _Five-0!_. Bunny Suit moved quickly, putting himself behind Steve, holding a cattle prod to Steve’s hanging form. 

“Drop it!” Chin yelled. Bunny Suit just laughed. “I said, DROP IT!” They wanted the guy alive; they wanted to know if there were more victims before they’d caught on. They wanted to know what made the guy tick. What made him choose the victims he had, how he had snapped, why he had done what he’d done.

The battery operated lamp in the corner illuminated a pink fuzzy arm extending the cattle prod that continued to electrocute Steve. Painful cries tore from his throat while Steve thrashed uselessly. Bunny Suit kept laughing. Danny put a bullet in his face.

~~~~

The point of contact fell away from his body, but Steve still felt it, still rippled from the pain. Then his knees were being lifted. “No.” He whimpered. A strong arm held his legs up while another supported his back. It smelled like Danny.

“Get him down! Somebody get him down! **NOW!** ” He was raised a bit in his new sitting position, giving a little rest to his arms. Steve grunted with the pain, but he felt his wrists raised and then lowered, slowly dropped to his lap. He wouldn’t have naysayed that tone of Danny’s either. “Get a medic!”

“Let’s get him out of the scene first.” Steve heard Chin’s words and felt Danny nod against him.

“I want a blanket before we hit the stairs.” Steve felt jostled as Danny crossed the room. Then there was an emergency blank wrapped around him, Chin essentially tucking him in against Danny’s chest before Danny ascended the stairs still holding Steve.

He felt himself placed on a gurney, felt Danny’s hands moving out from under him, slipping away. Steve scrambled trying to get a hand free, trying to grab Danny. “Don’t go!” He rasped when his body wouldn’t obey him. “Danno.”

Danny’s face was over his, smiling tightly, a hand lightly stroking his hair. “Right here, Babe. Not going anywhere without you.”

~~~~

Steve was aware he was in a hospital bed. The pain was everywhere, but there was some kind of pain killer coursing through him trying to mask it. He knew he would heal faster with the drug, but he did resent it a bit. 

His hand was warm. Not that anywhere on his body wasn’t comfortable, temperature wise, but his hand was warmer. Steve looked, smiled, squeezed Danny’s hand as Danny slept, head on Steve’s mattress.

“He didn’t sleep much while you were missing.” Steve looked to the other side of the bed. Chin was watching him from one chair, while Kono slept in another.

“Didn’t sleep well before that.” Steve’s throat ached with the words. 

Chin stood slowly, stretching, then picked up a plastic cup of water with a straw and brought it to Steve’s mouth. “It was worse with you gone.”

“You two don’t look much better.” Steve offered trying to level things back out. Wanting to pretend that there was no more to how he felt about Danny than how he felt about the rest of his team.

Chin shook his head, placed the water back on the food tray. “I’m going to tell the nurse you’re awake. Tell him how you feel about him.” He indicated the sleeping detective. “I’d guess he feels the same.” Chin walked from the room leaving Steve feeling amazed and grateful.


End file.
